VOIP emerging technology gives to the end user the advantage to perform some phone call at very low rate.
Conventional phones implementing the VOIP technology are typically connected to a USB (stands for Universal Serial Bus) port of a personal computer PC using a USB cable and comprise software which uses peripheral capabilities of the PC such as sound card, broadband modem, etc. Such phones require the installation of software on the PC so that the PC is able to recognize the phone.
When the software installation is completed, the audio capabilities of the phone are set as default audio capabilities for the PC configuration. This means that all software applications running on the PC and requiring audio input or output will use the audio capabilities of the phone. Such a conventional installation mechanism is for example depicted in the Siemens Gigaset M34 user manual.
This configuration is suitable when the end-user uses his phone for Voice Over Internet Protocol communication. However, this configuration is not suitable when other audio applications such games or media players are running since it means that the end user has to use his phone for those applications. If the end user wants to use other devices such as sound card for audio input and/or output, he has to manually change the configuration of the device manager or unplug the phone in order to get the suitable device configuration.